Ecommerce Weekend Reads

If you were too busy enjoying the holiday and missed this week’s news/posts, we’ve got you covered! Here’s a recap of the best ecommerce news and site reviews from the past week:

News

To Compete with E-Commerce, Retailers Need to Leverage Mobile(Harvard Business Review)
“More and more shoppers are finding that online shopping offers greater convenience, lower prices, more information, and a more personalized user experience that makes buying online preferable to going to a store. And as free shipping becomes more common, one of the last remaining barriers to e-commerce is falling. The shift was reflected in this year’s Black Friday weekend numbers. Although sales were essentially flat overall, online sales grew as a share of total sales by 28 percent from the previous year.”

The Coming Digital Wallet Revolution(Ecommerce Times)
“What are the three objects that you’re most likely to grab as you leave the house today? They are likely to be your keys, your smartphone and your wallet, complete with cash and plastic bank cards. Well, if some forward-thinkers have their way, within a short time you’ll just be grabbing the keys and phone only — the plastic stays at home. Digital wallets — a theoretical promise since the inception of the chip-based smart bank cards that are common outside the U.S. — may be about to go mainstream.”

Two takes on holiday web sales(Internet Retailer)“IBM says online retail sales grew 37% year over year last weekend. ComScore says the weekend was disappointing, and that web purchases by consumers using computers, not mobile devices, are now up only 10%. Meanwhile, some delivery services didn’t make holiday deadlines.”